Profitable Farming de¬ 
pends as much on sell¬ 
ing as ‘on producing. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER’S 
A crop which is well 
grown is only half 
way to market. 
MARKET, CROP AND NEWS SPECIAL. 
Special to 
Club Organizers. 
The multitude of able men, ■promi¬ 
nent and progressive farmers who are 
noiv interesting themselves in organ¬ 
izing clubs of subscriptions for The 
Rural New-Yorker speaks more than 
volumes could of the warm feeling of 
personal interest between the Paper 
and its Readers. This practical co¬ 
operation in forivarding the import¬ 
ant interests of agriculture common 
to all farmers, practical, commercial, 
social, political, is what is actually 
placing The Rural New-Yorker at 
the very head of the farm papers of 
the World, in character, in circulat ion 
and in influence. By working to¬ 
gether 4 ‘ we ”— subscribers, readers, 
editors and publishers—shall become 
a compact, strong body of ivorlcers 
whose power for good will be limited 
only by our wisdom in using it for the 
furtherance of the objects ive all have 
at heart. 
The opportunities for the organiza¬ 
tion of clubs are manifold. The casual 
meeting, at work, on the road, at the 
store, at the Grange, Alliance, Club 
meetings and social gatherings ; these 
are the times and occasions for in¬ 
creasing our family of readers and 
subsequent workers in the cause of ad¬ 
vanced Agriculture. 
AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
The Nebraska Legislature has organized 
with Farmers’ Alliance officers. 
Warehouses containing 2,000 bales of 
•cotton were burned at Genoa, Italy. 
Sickness has broken out among the 200 
race horses wintering at Lexington, Ky. 
A cyclone at Sherman, Texas, destroyed 
much property and caused some loss of 
life. 
Galvanized iron horse collars are being 
tried by some of the English artillery com¬ 
panies. 
The Minnesota House of Representatives 
has organized by electing an Alliance man 
Speaker. 
A foreign syndicate, capitalized at $4,000, 
000, is securing control of the timber lands 
of California. 
A “ new and peculiar disease of worms in 
the lungs ” of cattle has been discovered at 
Monroe, Conn. 
A Mississippi cow disputed the right of 
way of a passenger train and succeeded in 
causing a bad wreck. 
Arrangements are about completed for 
the acquisition of the Canadian flour-mills 
by an English syndicate. 
Of the 4,200 species of flowers now cul¬ 
tivated in Europe, it is said that only 10 per 
cent give forth any odor. 
A white zebu, the first one ever born in 
this country, made its appearance at the 
Philadelphia Zoological gardens recently. 
Belgium’s trade returns for 1890 show a 
decrease of 17 per cent in exports to the U. 
S., but an increase of 16 per cent to other 
American countries. 
A Connecticut farmer found a wild cat 
in his poultry house on New Year’s morn¬ 
ing and despatched it with his old duck 
gun. It weight was 52 pounds. 
The four-year-old filly Palo Alto Belle, 
has been sold to an Ohio man for $10,000 
cash and the bay mare Alfarette, valued at 
$6,000, by Alcantra, dam by Almont. 
Several of the largest California raisin 
packers have declared their intention of 
never again employing Chinese laborers, 
white labor having proved in every way 
preferable. 
Arrangements have been perfected for 
sending a large number of negroes from the 
coast region of the Carolinas, Louisiana 
and Alabama to work on the fruit farms of 
California. 
A new and strange disease has appeared 
among the hogs in Platt County, Ill., 
which is different from any of the various 
maladies that have prevailed, and baffles all 
known remedies. 
J. S. Woodward, Secretary of the New 
York State Board of Agriculture, has had 
another stroke of paralysis. His many 
friends hope for his speedy recovery and 
restoration to the work in which he has 
been so actively engaged. 
Henry M. Stanley says that the great 
forest region of Central Africa, an area 
twice the size of California, is an ideal 
place for colonizing the American negro; 
but the expense is so great that only a large 
organization can effect anything. 
The American Harvester Company, which 
was organized in November with a capital 
of $35,000,000, has been dissolved. Quarrels 
among the companies forming the com¬ 
bination and the recent decisions against 
trusts-in some of the States were chief fac¬ 
tors in influencing this decision. 
Pennsylvania agriculturists object to the 
recent decision by Judge Reed in the oleo¬ 
margarine case. This decision was to the 
effect that original packages shipped from 
another State were not subject legally to 
the restrictive laws in force in Pennsyl¬ 
vania. An appeal will be taken to the 
United States Supreme Court. 
The “ farmers’ ” club of this city, com¬ 
posed of such “ farmers ” as Chauncey M. 
Depew, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Pierre Loril- 
lard and other similarly famous agricultur¬ 
ists, sat down to their annual dinner at the 
Hotel Brunswick, Thursday night. The 
elegance of the table was said to surpass 
anything before seen at these dinners. The 
talks were entirely of an informal nature, 
farm and dairy interests being the topics 
under discussion. 
A number of horsemen of Eastern Penn¬ 
sylvania met at Wilkesbarre on Thursday 
and organized the Trotting and Pacing 
Horse Breeders’ Association. The officers 
elected were: President, H. H. Harvey, 
Wilkesbarre; Vice Presidents, Dr. R. 
Davis, Wilkesbarre, and Thomas Weiss, of 
Bethlehem ; Secretary, W. Fred Pressgrove, 
of Colmar; Treasurer, John Laning, 
Wilkesbarre. The annual meetings are to 
take place there on the second Thursday in 
January. The object of the meeting is to 
encourage the breeding of road horses of 
superior quality. 
The Canadian authorities are still agitat¬ 
ing the question of the healthfulness of 
their cattle for export. If contagious 
pleuro pneumonia really exists among 
cattle in any part of the Dominion it is 
likely that Great Britain will promptly put 
an embargo on importations of Canadian 
cattle, just like that which has been 
placed on American. Because a case or two 
of the disease may exist in a corner of New 
Jersey or Maryland, the cattle from the 
whole of this country are tabooed ; and for 
the sake of consistency those from the 
whole ot Canada are likely to suffer for the 
ailments of a few in any part of the Do¬ 
minion. 
The Higganum Manufacturing Corpora¬ 
tion, for some years doing business at 189 
and 191 Water Street, New York, has sold 
its business to The Geo. L. Squier Manu¬ 
facturing Company of 195 Water Street, 
manufacturers of plantation machinery, 
who will continue the seed and implement 
business at the old stand. The latter firm 
say that it is their purpose to make this 
house the most extensive and perfect em¬ 
porium of agricultural implements and 
plantation machinery on this continent, 
and a place where everything in said lines 
can be found of the best quality and at the 
lowest living prices. They will give special 
attention to the export trade. 
Condensed Correspondence. 
Polk County, Neis, — Our crops were 
complete failures last season on account of 
the hot winds in June. Corn last spring 
was 16 cents per bushel, and is now 45 to 50 
cents. F. L. S. 
Sherman County, Neb.— This has been 
a sad year for Nebraska, there being an 
almost total failure of crops owing to 
drought and hot winds. A cyclone passed 
over my house on June 22, leveling to the 
ground every building as well as a fine 
bearing orchard, and destroying all my 
farm tools, wagons and household furni¬ 
ture, and about $400 worth of books. We 
had lived in our new house but little more 
than a year, having just completed it at a 
cost of $3,500. The barns and outbuildings 
were all new and commodious. 
MRS. J. L. G. 
Genesee County, N. Y.-We have had 
little snow so far this winter and the ground 
is not frozen very hard. Wheat looked fine 
as a general thing when winter set in. I 
have noticed a few pieces in which the in¬ 
sects were working. No oats to sell this 
year. Wheat and barley are nearly all out 
of farmers’ hands. Farmers are trying to 
sell beans but the market has been flat 
through December. Buyers are beginning 
to call for them again, but so many are 
damaged that they do not bring much. 
Potatoes are high, but it is the opinion of 
some that they will be cheaper in the spring, 
as there are thousands of bushels in cellars 
through this section, because there was no 
market for them last fall. The immense 
hay crop is fast disappearing. Hay is so 
low that farmers are feeding it out. It 
may bring a good price yet as it will be a 
good while before hay will come again. 
A good deal of straw is being sold very 
cheap. C. F. 
Polk Co., Iowa. — December was more 
pleasant than most May days are in this 
country—warm, sunny and dry. This was 
a great help to farmers in feeding stock; 
for they nearly lived in the stalk fields. On 
the last day of the month the weather was 
soft and threatened rain, which turned into 
a big snow storm, and on New Year’s Day 
it snowed all day. For a while the snow 
melted and ran into the ground, so we feel 
encouraged to think our ground will be in 
better condition for the reception of seeds 
next spring than it has been for some years. 
The water supply has become a big thing 
in this country. Many old wells have been 
cleaned out and dug deeper and many new 
ones have been made. Rivers and creeks 
are nearly dry. When I came here 10 
years ago we could get a good well of water 
almost anywhere by digging down from 15 
to 30 feet; now we have to go from 30 to 
100 feet to get water. Corn and hay are 
not selling for as much now as in the fall: 
Corn, 40 cents to 45 cents per bushel; hay, 
$7 to $8 per ton. Apples and potatoes are 
scarce and high. Fat hogs and cattle have 
nearly all been sold to save feeding. Busi¬ 
ness has been very dull this winter. It is 
harder to sell land here now than it was 10 
years ago. F. s. w. 
Clark County, Ky.— Christmas morning 
opened with a three-inch snow, followed 
by rain and sleet, and the next morning 
everything was heavily covered with ice. 
Trees of all sorts suffered greatly. Many 
peach trees are entirely ruined. The trees 
on my place had only been planted a year, 
and, as I cut them back in November, they 
escaped injury entirely. I shall be more 
than ever an advocate of fall pruning. 
Tobacco is the great money crop in this 
country, though enough corn, hay, wheat 
and oats Is grown for home use. Little 
value is obtained from the corn fodder as 
it is not properly cured. Believing it to be 
worth caring for, I cut my sweet corn stalks 
before too dry and put them under shelter. 
By cutting them into short lengths and 
wetting them and mixing middlings and 
salt thoroughly with them, there has been 
very little waste, and the mixture has been 
about all the roughness that my two horses 
and a cow have had thus far, and they are 
in much better condition than the average 
farmer’s stock. Another good feature is 
that the manure which I put in my garden 
will not be full of weeds and Timothy seed. 
Verily, as one Ohio man said reoently, our 
people do not pay enough attention to 
little things. Oue rarely sees coppers out¬ 
side of the banks and post office. I have 
known of instances where persons owned 
20 or 30 acres of land, who have left it and 
rented a larger farm rather than try to 
make ends meet by raising small fruits 
and such truck stuff. Among many 
farmers manuring consists wholly of put¬ 
ting -straw from the stack or scattering 
other feed, “on the poor points.” Our 
lands are good yet, but with lack of any 
systematic manuring and the continued 
raising of tobacco, they are bound to de¬ 
teriorate greatly within the next decade. 
The old practice of raising Short-horns and 
feeding New York beeves, was greatly con¬ 
ducive to fertility of the soil, as a whole 
field could be “ brought up” in a couple of 
winters’ feeding, by scattering the corn on 
different spots. w. 8. 
Chicago, Cook County, III—I have 
just returned from a short visit to the 
dairy farming district round Elgin. My 
farmer friend has about 180 acres of land, 
and keeps 60 head of cattle, mostly Short¬ 
horns and grades. He now has a Holstein 
bull. The milk is sold to the condensing 
factory, and he says he gets as much from 
the condensing factory for 68 pounds of 
milk as he would for 100 pounds from the 
creamery. He grows corn, oats, Timothy 
and clover, all of which are used on the 
farm for the stock. He claims to have got 
270 bushels of ear corn to the acre last sea¬ 
son. His oats always lodge owing to rank 
growth. When I mentioned “too much 
nitrogen for the available silicates in the 
soil,” he said he did not care “ how strong 
in silicates the straw might be, if the wind 
was strong enough it would cause the oats 
to lodge.” He feeds corn fodder, corn meal, 
and bran and hay. He has a corn shelter 
and grinder which are worked by a sweep 
horf-e power. The corn fodder is given to 
the stock in the stalk. The cows eat 
what they want and the stalks are removed 
and cut small for bedding. The manure is 
hauled out to the fields as made. The milk 
house is supplied with water from a wind¬ 
mill, and the milk cans are put into a water 
vat to extract the aulmal heat. The milk 
is delivered to the condensing factory 
every day except Sunday. The farm is 
worked by two pairs of horses, and he also 
has a mare and colt. This farm is not far 
distant from Dunham’s famous horse rais¬ 
ing establishment. The whole Fox River 
valley seems to be wonderfully fertile, and 
judging by the number of large new barns 
I noticed in course of erection, the farmers 
seem to be prosperous. My friend is inter¬ 
ested in a creamery and wood yard in addi¬ 
tion to his farm, and the railroad company 
have induced him to take charge of their 
depot at the village which sends 400 cans of 
milk to Chicago daily. He is a telegraph 
operator and came from Scotland about 24 
years ago. When he took hold of the farm 
only 12 acres were tillable, and the land 
was worth $40 per acre. The whole of the 
farm is now tilled. Several miles of tile 
drains have been put in, and it is worth 
$100 per acre. He has marie money from 
farming, and no doubt others have done 
the same in his neighborhood. w. D. K. 
CROP AND MARKET NOTES. 
More orange groves are being planted in 
Louisiana. 
There is a scarcity of clover seed with 
considerable export demand, 
It is estimated that about 50 per cent of 
the Florida orange crop has been mar¬ 
keted. 
California reports water-melons fresh 
from the vines for Christmas dinner in sev¬ 
eral parts of the State. 
Louisiana reports that the season of 
1890 was remarkably favorable for sugar, 
and the yield is almost without precedent. 
The grinding season was especially fine. 
The American Institute Farmers’ Club 
discussed sugar beet raising at a recent 
meeting. One speaker’s view, drawn 
from his experiences among the French 
peasantry, was that beet raising might be 
adapted to certain sections of the country 
